


Soul mates

by engineer10349



Category: The Shannara Chronicles (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-05-14 18:18:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5753428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/engineer10349/pseuds/engineer10349
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soul mates AU where you have your soul mate tattooed on your body. Essentially a rewrite of the pilot with Amberle/Eretria - Princess Rover.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Soul mates

Amberle had learned to read at age 5, a year before all the other kids did, because she wanted to know her soul mate’s name. She wanted to be able to say it. She wanted to be able to recognize it. She had never shown the name on her wrist to anyone, she wore an arm band over it in fact, but she taught herself how to say it. Eretria. She wondered what she would say to her when she met her. She wondered when she would meet her. She wondered if she would meet her. 

She had rehearsed so many scenarios. The first of which was to play it cool. She could say, ‘Eretria, huh? That’s a nice name.’ Or maybe, ‘Well it’s nice to meet you Eretria.’ Or maybe a little less subtle like, ‘It’s nice to finally meet you.’ She thought about whether to give her name away in their first meeting. She could use a name like ‘Lee’, which was just a shorter version of her real name. She could wait to see how she felt about the girl before they started a relationship. She could see how the girl would treat her if she wasn’t destined her love her. She could see her objectively, before she was too attached.

The second scenario was of course to dive in head first. Remove her arm band and show the girl her name. Say, “I’m Amberle.” Marry her the first chance she got. She had thought about how she would propose. She wanted to clear the entire palace for an hour and get an absurd amount of flowers and make her feel like the most special girl in the world. Because she already was to Amberle. Even though she didn’t know her, every time she said the word ‘Eretria’ she smiled.

The third, somewhat middle ground scenario, was to just say ‘I’m Amberle’ and wait for her reaction. She had no idea how this girl would actually feel about her. Maybe she would be destined to love someone from an opposing kingdom, who despised her with every atom of her being. Maybe she was supposed to love someone who just chose someone else. She heard that happened sometimes. The choice was always yours. Nothing was really set in stone. You can’t help who you love. 

As a child, she had always gone around her new class each year and introduced herself with enthusiasm. Each year she was always disappointed that she never found her Eretria. By high school she introduced herself reluctantly, always trying to keep her hopes down but always kicking herself for still being sad when the other person answered that they were not Eretria. At the end of the final year, almost everyone had connected with their soul mate. She wondered if her Eretria had died, or chose to be away from her, or was some kind of error. Maybe her name wasn’t supposed to be on her wrist. Maybe the universe had gotten it wrong.

By the time she was 21, she had completely given up. She told herself that it didn’t matter. She was a Princess, how many other people got that? The others could have their love, their soul mate, and she could have this. Maybe it was the universe’s way of making it even. She knew that people whispered about her. An Elf unmarried by 20 was almost unheard of, and certainly not in the royal family. Her entire family still asked her though, every day, if she’d met her soul mate. They didn’t even know her name. They had asked a few times, but Amberle had insisted that it really wasn’t any of their business. It felt like a source of shame now, the name on her wrist. It made her feel like there was something wrong with her. But she tried to never let it show. She was a Princess. She had to keep up appearances.

She decided to throw herself into something else. She decided to run the gauntlet. She thought if the whole world was going to think she was weird and different anyway, she may as well break a few traditions. Besides, all of the other candidates were married, they were distracted by another person. Not Amberle. No, she was free to focus on this, just this, all of the time. She tried to convince herself that that really was a positive, but being alone in the woods 15 hours a day gave a person a lot of time to think.

She came first in the gauntlet. She won by one of the widest margins ever seen. Of course she did. Nobody had trained harder. Nobody had wanted it as much as she did. And although it was somewhat expected, she was so happy. So relieved. Finally, something had gone right. She wondered if her family would be proud of her for this, or if her relationship status would still be all that they talked about.

All of her pride died the second she touched that damn tree. She had a vision, a magic-like premonition of death and destruction and pain. She felt it all too. The fear, the pain of the sword piercing their heart, the realization that they were dying, the prayers on their lips, unfinished as they bled out on the floor. She felt the violent rage of the killer, anger all-consuming and entirely directed at the Chosen, as they slaughtered her friends. And then she saw that the killer was her, and she stood there in silence, trying to hide the shock.

The vision went away and she was standing in front of her people, trying to seem normal, smiling and walking away, nice and calmly, so nobody suspected she was leaving the city immediately. She didn’t even know where she was going as she packed a few things, grabbed the first horse she could find, and galloped away from the city as fast as she could.

She rode for hours until night fell. She was unsure what to do really. She was a Princess. She didn’t go outside much. She saw a fire in the distance and wondered if someone might be kind enough to help her out. So she dismounted and walked towards the fire, definitely seeing at least one person sitting by it. As she got closer, she heard a ‘whoosh’ go past her and realized that a knife had been thrown very close to her face. “Next one goes through your heart,” she heard. 

She could see the speaker now. It was a young woman, very pretty. Although, Amberle considered herself off the market. She didn’t really expect her soul mate to show up, but she knew she would be disappointed in herself if she was with another girl and then met her Eretria. She wouldn’t even know what to do. Should she pick her soul mate because writing on her arm said so, or the girl she had actually fallen for? Still, she just needed to survive this. “I’m not here to hurt you, okay? I just wanted some help. I’ve never really been in the woods before.”

“You’re an Elf,” the girl said, practically spitting the name of her race.

“I’m Amberle actually, what’s your name?”

“Eretria.” And that’s when Amberle was convinced that this was and always would be the worst day of her life. Her soul mate hated her entire race. She’d never want her. She’d never even know they were soul mates. Humans didn’t get the writing on their body. They just picked someone and hoped for the best. Amberle supposed that’s what she should do now. There was no point in holding out for this girl. 

“Okay, I’m just ... gonna go. Away. Forever. Don’t worry, I won’t bother you again.” Eretria noticed how the girl had softened significantly, and seemed to be rather sad, and although she hated her people she supposed that hating somebody based on the way that they were born wasn’t particularly fair. So she decided to take pity on her.

“No, wait. You can stay with me for a few days, okay? I’ll show you what trees are poisonous and stuff. And then you can go ... wherever it is you’re going.” Amberle knew she should leave. She was going to get attached. And then have to say goodbye. But there was no way she’d make it in these woods alone so she smiled and she nodded and she slept in Eretria’s spare sleeping bag.

The next day Eretria did show her where the edible plants were. She pointed out the poisonous ones. She pointed out the itchy ones. She pointed out the really good tasting ones. She tried to teach Amberle how to climb a tree, but that really turned into watching Amberle fall off a tree and laughing hysterically. She never talked about herself, nor did she ask Amberle anything. They just spent time together, just existing, and Amberle was already starting to fall for her. 

She knew that this was her window of opportunity. They were running out of forest, and Eretria was only going to show her around for a little while. She had to decide now: did she want to tell her? She liked her. She knew she’d like her. But Eretria didn’t necessarily like her. And she definitely didn’t like her race. And probably the biggest irony was that she didn’t think her family would like Eretria very much. ‘So have you met anyone?’ was a constant reminder of her loneliness, and yet when they said anyone they didn’t mean anyone. They had always assumed that it would be Elf. Would they even accept a human? Was it even legal to marry her? She didn’t think there was anything in the marriage law that specified race, but prejudice had a way of finding ways around laws. Or making new laws.

She decided there was really nothing to lose, and if she didn’t try she’d regret it forever. “Eretria you’re my soul mate,” Amberle just blurted out as Eretria was telling her how to avoid the trolls. 

“I’m ... what?” asked Eretria. Amberle wondered if she even knew about Elves being born with their soul mate’s name on their body. She looked very confused. Amberle took off her arm band and showed Eretria her name on her wrist. “That is my name. Which you ... tattooed?”

“I was born with it. Elves are born with their soul mate’s name on their body. And, well, you’re mine. Obviously, you don’t have to date me if you don’t want to. I mean ... I guess it’s just a fun fact. So trolls ...” Amberle put her arm band back on, cursing herself for ever thinking that this girl would ever like her.

“Wait, wait, wait. So we’re meant to be together? It’s fated by destiny? That’s what you’re telling me?”

“I don’t think we’re meant to do anything. The universe is certainly telling us that if we had a relationship, it would probably go well. But we all have free will. And maybe the universe gets it wrong sometimes. People have had relationships with their ‘soul mate’ and it’s fallen apart. It’s rare, but it happens. People have been happy their entire lives with someone whose name isn’t on their body. I think destiny is just the path that we choose to take. And it might be easier to think it’s all set in stone, because then our decisions don’t really have that much weight to them. Because it was ‘meant to be’ or ‘predetermined’ or whatever. But for the record, I would very much like to see where this goes. So, what I’m asking is, would you?”

“I mean ... why not, right?” asked Eretria, still somewhat confused by the universe’s general accuracy of predicting happy Elven relationships at the time of birth. Amberle smiled, somewhat unable to believe that after all this time, she found her. She had watched almost everyone she knew find their soul mate and look at her with such pity. She never thought she’d see this day.

Eretria entwined their hands while trying to hide her smile, just as Amberle recognized one of her guard’s voices. “Princess Amberle!” Amberle went towards the voice, dragging a somewhat reluctant Eretria behind her. The guard told her that the rest of the Chosen were dead, that she had to come back. Eretria nodded, trying to hide her fear of abandonment.

“Yeah, go,” Eretria mumbled, dropping her hand. Amberle quickly picked it up again.

“Hey, if I’m going, you’re going. I just found you. I’m not letting you go.” Eretria squeezed her hand a little, tried to ignore the look on the guard’s face at an Elf-Human relationship, and pushed him off the horse. “Eretria!” yelled Amberle, confused.

“Look, we’ve got to get there now, he’ll slow us down, he’s a tough soldier, he can walk.” Amberle felt like their was more emotion in her reasoning than she was letting on, but her logic was right so Amberle got on the horse, followed by Eretria, and they rode back towards her home. 

When they arrived, they were immediately taken to meet with the King. He started going on about how Amberle had broken some ridiculous tradition involving a tree? Eretria had always thought that Elves were stupid but this was really something. Like, who made this guy King? Why hadn’t there been a coup? He really needed better priorities. And Amberle was standing there and apologizing and Eretria just knew that she meant every word. It was so annoying that this girl valued herself so little as to think that a tradition about a tree warranted her being called ‘a shame to the family’. 

Eventually, they ‘graciously’ decided to forgive her crime, and then mentioned that she would need to go on an epic quest to save the world from demons. Honestly, the whole soul mate thing had been a bit of a stretch, but demons? Amberle seemed to accept it though, so she decided that was good enough for her. For now anyway. And then, the moment she had really been waiting for, the King asked her, “who is this human?”

“She’s my soul mate.” There were gasps, whispers and looks of horror. An Elf-Human relationship was really a big thing here. Eretria couldn’t quite believe how outdated these people were. Rovers didn’t care who you loved. They thought love was a beautiful thing in a harsh world, and if you can find it and it can make you happy then that’s pretty incredible. And here were these supposedly ‘civilized’ people with their fancy palaces and technology, who criticized Rovers for being ‘barbaric’, but they treated people in love like there was something wrong with them. It was like when they told Rovers they were ‘savage’ for not having palaces and yet Elves would camp out in the woods by choice and think they were ‘special’ and ‘appreciated nature’. Or talked about how their kids were ‘addicted to technology’ and ‘didn’t understand how to really enjoy life’, and yet called Rovers ‘simple’. It’s almost like it was just coded racism.

She could see Amberle’s face, she was hurt by the reaction. How could they put someone through so much pain for this? “She’s a Human!” said the King, sounding more confused than anything else.

“She is aware,” Eretria chimed in. She’d been silent long enough, it was time to defend her girlfriend? soul mate? She’d work out the details later.

“It is another species!” Eretria was vaguely aware of being referred to as ‘it’ and decided to file it away under ‘reasons I think you should live with me and not these horrible people.’ “Why not marry a horse?” asked the King.

“I bet your spouse wished they married a horse. Would have said less stupid things,” smiled Eretria, smiling as innocently as possible. Amberle looked vaguely embarrassed, but she could see her hide a laugh, so she decided it had been worth saying. The King looked horrified, as did the rest of the pompous looking Elves. 

“I could have you executed!” he spat.

“But you won’t. Because 1. that’s something evil dictators do - murder people that they just don’t like. And 2. your granddaughter loves me and if you cause her this unnecessary pain you’re not a really great family member,” said Eretria, trying to have an air of confidence that she didn’t really feel. The King growled but didn’t order her death, so she decided to keep going. “And besides, I can look after your granddaughter on her quest. I know the forest pretty well.” 

“Fine. But for the record, I hope you get attacked by demons,” said the King bitterly.

“Yeah, you too. Come on Amberle, time to go,” said Eretria, dragging Amberle away from those awful people as fast as she could. Amberle had to go ... inside a tree? ... or something but apparently she ‘needed her strength’ so she would do that tomorrow. Eretria didn’t actually know the way to Amberle’s room, or any room in the palace for that matter, but she figured if she just walked angrily through the castle long enough she’d get there. Luckily Amberle had recovered from being yelled at by her family after a few minutes so she could actually lead Eretria to her room.

Eretria didn’t know what she expected, Amberle was a Princess, but this was the nicest stuff she’d ever seen in her life and she couldn’t quite believe it was real. She couldn’t really believe any of this was real. Amberle guided them to the bed. She was tired. She had been camping for the first time in her life. She slept on the ground with thin fabric attempting to shield her from the hard ground and failing. She barely slept. She had more bites than she could count. She had eaten nothing but fruit and berries for at least 24 hours. She just collapsed into the bed, pulling Eretria with her, and closed her eyes. Eretria had never known anything so soft in her life, and she certainly wasn’t used to sleeping with someone’s arms around her. And yet, as she closed her eyes, she realized that she could really get used to it.

The next morning she was treated to breakfast in bed. Amberle had clearly woken up before her, and had gotten her some food. She wondered if it was to avoid another confrontation with her family, or just because she wanted to spend some time alone with her. Either way, she was happy to be here, and certainly very happy to eat food she didn’t have to catch first. She could tell that Amberle was nervous about today’s events because she was unusually quiet. 

It was rather strange to Eretria that her family was almost forcing her to put her life on the line. Sure, it was to save the world and everything, but she didn’t see why they couldn’t just get some new Chosen and make them take the incredibly dangerous journey. People more prepared, better trained. People who weren’t royalty. She wondered if this was some kind of plot to take out the Princess, maybe they didn’t want her to rule and this was a convenient way to explain her death. Then again, since when was she a conspiracy theorist? This was probably just a classic case of people expecting their children (and grandchildren) to make ridiculous sacrifices for them.

Eretria knew better than to tell Amberle what she thought of her family. She knew enough about Elves to know that they valued tradition, even if it didn’t make any sense. She knew that regardless of what she said, Amberle would go on a suicide mission if her family told her that it would make them proud. The best that she could do would be to accompany her and try to protect her. And love her. They hadn’t really talked about the whole ‘soul mate’ thing since they’d been here, but Eretria decided if she was going to die in that damn tree she was going to get a conversation first. “So are you my girlfriend?” Eretria asked.

“I ... if you want?”

“Okay.” Amberle wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but when Eretria lent into kiss her she figured it out. Eretria was a lot softer than she thought she’d be; her hand gently stroked Amberle’s face. It didn’t last as long as either of them wanted though, because the guards came in and told them ominously that ‘it was time’. Eretria insisted on walking her girlfriend to what she liked to call ‘the tree of death’, never letting go of her hand until Amberle stepped into the tree.


End file.
